I decided to take a different path this year.
I think all of you know how I feel on this topic, and next year I will be forced to address it like I normally do.
Simple because I think that this is a one trick pony way of doing it this year.

So here we go …
All information listed below is gathered from different government sites, and I will not take any responsibility for the governments’ numbers being wrong.

World War #1 - 117,000 American Soldiers gave their lives, for us!

World War #2 - 292,000 American Soldiers gave us their families, for us!

Korean War - 33,000 American Soldiers lost everything they knew & loved, for us!

Vietnam War - 58,168 American Soldiers decided to give us everything they had, for us!

Now, I am not going to get into all of the other wars such as: The Colonial Wars, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Banana Wars, Lebanon Crisis, Grenada, Beirut, Panama, and of course all of the other conflicts we have involved ourselves in, or the current conflicts in the Middle East, where we are losing soldiers every day.

Speaking of that, we currently have Soldiers stationed all over the world.
Although I tried to gather more information on those numbers, I was only able to find one that everyone would recognize, per say.
We currently have 183,000 Soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
That’s a lot of people!

And speaking of that, let’s take a look at some other numbers.
These aren’t the Soldiers who have already given us their lives, but the ones who are currently willing to do that for us.
The following numbers are based off of the financial reports of the forth quarter of 2009.

The US Army has approximately 540,000 soldiers
The National Guard has approximately 360,500
Army Reserves 197,000

Navy approximately 330,000
Navy Reserves approximately 124,000

Marines approximately 203,000
Marine reserves 40,000

Air Force approximately 330,000
Air Force Reserves approximately 69,000
Air National Guard approximately 95,000

Grand Total = 2,288,500 Soldiers ready to give their lives for you, at any given moment!

Now let us not forget the Soldiers who came home to us, either.
You know the ones, the ones who are crippled, both mentally and physically.
Constantly tormented from everything from missing limbs, to being stuck in a bed unable to see and/or hear anything, other than the screams they relive, everyday, in their heads.
This also does not include the poor souls who came home, but could not survive and/or not be able to live with what they had done and had seen, and then decided to take their own lives, one way or another.
Anything from drugs and alcohol, to guns and stepping in front of trains.

That’s that, as always, thanks simply doesn’t say enough!
I hope these numbers will help you understand why these people are so special.
They do what we can’t, won’t, and are just all around afraid to do.

So in closing, I say thank you, and reuse the old saying that “Freedom isn’t Free“!
Please, sit back and remember what that means, what people have given, and are still giving for us, so that we can say that we are Free!

And for the few out there who disagree, remember this …
Jack Nicholson’s character, Col. Nathan R. Jessep, in the movie, “A Few Good Men”, said this, and I think it says it very well ...

“ … my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know, deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you don't Want me on that wall, you Need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.”

Yea, not a lot going on.
I could talk about the oil spill, but I am not in the mood.
Although I do have some opinions on it of course, but I think everyone knows them.
If not, well, the next big spill like this I will rant and rave.
Enough other people have said enough and my opinion is no better or eye opening then there’s.
I know I don’t have the quick fix answer so this time I am choosing not to force my opinion in the hopes that smarted people then me can get there points and ideals to the right eyes/ears.
O how lucky and glad the 3 of you are :P
Work is good.
La Wife is good.
Wonder Dog is Good.
Friends seem to be doing well other then one is getting divorced and another’s relationship of 17 years is over.
No neither is Kermit.
House and cars are doing well.
(Insert Crossed Fingers Here and knocking on the wood filling cabinet next to me!)
Family seems to be doing alright.
Websites are both up and going with more then a few hundred hit’s a month.
So now you know what’s going on in my happy little world.

Now I have to get back to writing my Memorial day blog … yea, I actually started it last week and haven’t finished it yet.
I know what you are thinking … Dear God how long is it?
Yea, I don’t think it will even be ½ a page.
Going a different direction this year, I hope it works …

The shuttle Atlantis went up on Friday.
Watched that, still amazing.
If a guy driving a race car around in circles at 200 miles an hour is considered an athlete, shouldn’t an astronaut be then also by default?
They go faster and have a lot more things to do then hold one foot on the floor and keep turning left?
Then again, is it not a sport because we don’t put stickers all over the shuttle?
I think we need to do that actually!
Get sponsors and advertise on the shuttle!
Yea!
We can make big money on that!
Have the astronauts walking down the bridge way with some pimped out patches all over there space suites.
We need to think more about this …

Lets see, the fox in our area had some babies.
They are so darn cute!

Wonder Dog went to the dog park again on Saturday.

Um, yea, I think that’s about it?

O, and of course what happened at work.
I already wrote this over at Bars & Stripes, but I am tired and don’t feel like coming up with some big long though line twice in one day so I am reposting it over here.
Deal with it, they are my sites so I can cheat if I want to!

Speaking of good old DT, or defensive tactics if you will.
This last week all of the DT in the world couldn’t have helped a coworker of mine.
He was working on an outside work crew, you know the guys picking up trash and cutting the grass out on the side of the roads.
Low and behold he hears a loud bang and the window next to his head in the vehicle he is using gets blown out.
Yea, good times right!
He was OK, the inmates under his care are also alright.
Kind of scary though isn’t it?
I had thought about it before, but this was the first time it actually sank in that things like that can happen.
I am always all about bring on the biggest baddest guy wielding a baseball bat and I will put him down.
Bring me a small guy in a black ninja outfit with nunchucks … and I will run!
Those things HURT!!!
I don’t know why but I kind of forgot about guns.
Is it because I am so used to dealing with people who don’t have them?
I just don’t know?
It’s kind of strange to think about to be honest.
The guys who work out on the side of the roads are in more danger then I thought.
First you have to watch for traffic, then for friends of the inmates, then enemies of the inmates such as victims, co-defendants and friends/family of there victims.
Then also rival gangs and of course X inmates and other people who just hate correctional officers.

So, that was that.
That’s my little blurb about work this week and now to go work on my other website.
How and/or when did this turn into a job?
Also, when will I start to get paid for all this work?

This last week was interesting to say the least, well as interesting as things get in my life.
The only way that I could really think to handle and coupe with this stuff was of course to share it all with the world … lucky you!

Let me start with all of this first section comes from the mouths of inmates.
As we all know, they are the most brilliant people around, just ask them.
No, some of them are brilliant, and it’s darn scary just how smart they are in fact!
As proof of the majority though, I give you this lovely conversation …
Let me set the scene for you first though.
A Hawk flies by and all of the pigeons and crows get out of dodge hiding in the trees.
The only animals left in the area are a couple of ducks and a chicken.
One inmate asks why they didn’t go and hide as well.
Another inmate says because the ducks are larger then the hawk and there are two of them so it would be hard fight for the hawk to win being two on one after all.
OK, that kind of makes since.
The first inmate then asks why the chicken doesn’t go and hide.
Yet another inmate voices up and says because if the hawk gets to close the chicken will just fight it off and/or fly off.
Me ß um, what?
Then the discussion takes another turn as the inmates try and figure out what flies faster.
A chicken or a duck.
Because if the ducks are faster then of course that must be another reason why they are not afraid of this hawk because who has ever scene two ducks fighting a hawk … this is getting strange …
This goes on for about 10 minutes as 5 grown men go on and on about how hawks don’t want to mess with chickens because they will kick there bums.
Because of course, chickens are natural fighters and fight all the time and could easily take out a hawk.
This conversation hurt my head as they kept telling stories about how they have scene chicken fights and scene them flying.
At no point did any of them disagree with chickens not being able to fly though … so now I question it myself!
Do I need to fear a flock of dive-bombing chickens from the north as they migrate south for the winter for now on?
Did the Yankee’s actually use fighting chickens to help win the war?
Fly them in and them set them a foot with there claws of doom?
Then the question came up about turkeys too!
Did you know that they can fly as well?
Even the big fat fluffy ones!
Do you think that sometimes when there is a wayward chicken or turkey that a flock of ducks might let them fly south with them?
Is the reason I didn’t know about this simply because I never looked hard enough at a V formation in the sky just assuming it was ducks when in fact it might have been turkeys, chickens, penguins or ostridges?
Now I also wonder if the whole move Chicken Run based on a lie?
Where people finding out that chickens could in fact fly, did the government have to go to Hollywood to tell them to make this movie just to keep the people in the dark because they feared they might just need the Chicken soldiers again in the near future?
If all of this is true then I have really fouled up my foul knowledge!
I mean, if all of this is true and is in fact based on truth, do I in fact need fear cockatrice’s now too?!?
I mean it was bad enough having to watch out Medusas but now I might have to watch out for a second creature that might turn me to stone?
Dead Bob, if they are real Basilisks and other mythical creatures might be as well!
3 different type of monsters that can turn us to stone at just a look?
I think that we have a very real and dangerous problem here.
So much so that we might need to take this to the government!
The only lobbyists (Have I mentioned that I hate lobbyists?) who would possibly stand against us would be the 4:20 crew … hehe … yea I know I came a long way around to get to that joke but you know you smiled.
Where to start this search for the unholy creatures though … well Germany for the basilisk and Jamaica for the cockatrice of course!
OK, I don’t think I can beat this horse any longer so lets move on to what really bothered me this week shall we?

So I was driving my crew to the job site and we saw a large, about 1 foot long, turtle trying to cross the road.
Being that the road was about to get busy with traffic and it was dark so people might not see it, I ask if anyone wants to go move the turtle.
I would have, but I had a volunteer … there is hope isn’t there that some of these guys might turn out to be alright …
The guy gets out of the vehicle gets a good running start trying to get to the turtle and then … kicks it …
Um, no, I couldn’t have scene that correctly could I?
Wait he is moving towards it again … and kicks it again?
I get out, yell something I shouldn’t type out and make him pick it up and carry it across the street.
I ask him what in the world he was doing and he says he doesn’t like turtles because one time one bite him.
OMG, Um, what?
So he thinks it’s all funny until I tell him I am going to write him up for molesting wildlife and I see his face twist in that ‘what the heck I didn’t do that to the turtle’ look.
So, the turtle seemed OK, the inmate knows he messed up big time and I have the reaffirmation that some people are, as my mother has told me I was once, ‘a waist of flesh.’
HE KICKED THE POOR TURTLE!
What was he thinking?!?
I just don’t understand, did he think it was a basilisk?
O come on I had to make one more joke about it!

… I think I hate him …

Talk to you all next week

Lets start with the sad stuff.
Wonder Dog had to go to the vet and have a growth removed.
Yea, every time we get a little extra money she gets sick and/or a large household appliance breaks.
So, she had a strange growth on her leg that got to be about 2 and ½ inches long by about 1 and ½ across.
Low and behold the vet said it should be removed and gladly offered to take my money because he is such a nice guy.
No, actually the people at the Vets office are great and have GREAT prices!
So, Wonder Dog had to go in and now has about 15 stitches in her leg.
Do to this, a little dog was not allowed to lick at and/or pick at her new war wound.
How do you keep a dog from doing what comes natural?
The CONE OF SHAME! (See the movie Up for a better reference to that if you don’t get it)
So, here are some pictures of how sad a little dog looks while forced to have said device on.

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